Water
One of the most famous keys to life as we know it is water. Not only is it necessary for the functioning of all life, it also allows for thriving undersea ecosystems. Your planet's sea level is measured in centimeters (cm) above the planet's lowest point: as it rises, you'll see it gradually filling in the lower-elevation regions across the world. Terraforming A city or outpost that falls below the water level of a planet's oceans will be destroyed and its population lost. Before selecting a site to build, it is important to check the water summary tab for the goal amount. The water summary is measured in centimeters, while the colony/outpost placement map shows that spot's elevation in kilometers (km) above the current sea level. An easy conversion to remember is that every 100,000 cm is equivalent to 1 km. A 0 Pressure, the water interface is blocked and you are told surface water requires at least 600 pascals of pressure. However, water may still exist as ice or vapor, and is still tracked on that interface (you may have to turn up your phone's brightness to see it). If the pressure is between 0 and 600, the interface is not blocked, but surface water cannot accumulate. Pressure also affects the state of water; lower pressure also lowers the boiling point. At temperatures below freezing, any existing water will transfer to "Frozen in Ice". Above freezing, ice will melt into water and raise the sea level. At temperatures above the boiling point, water will evaporate to being "Retained by Atmosphere". If temperatures drop below boiling, water vapor will precipitate and raise the sea level. If pressure rises above 600, and the temperature is within the liquid range, all ice or vapor turn into liquid water extremely quickly (in the matter of minutes), which can completely destroy every outpost and city you have built before anything can be done. This is a possible occurrence that could get a planet stuck at a nearly unwinnable state without intending to, as if there is enough water vapor/ice the whole planet could be flooded and become an ocean planet, and you would be unable to place any cities or outposts. This is only salvageable in normal mode: Soletta can quickly adjust temperatures to be higher than the boiling point or lower than the melting point to turn the water into vapor and ice again. Once launched, it is immune to flooding and does not require the Spaceport to function. Note however that liquid water can still exist, even if the planet as a whole is at a temperature slightly higher or lower than its range. It may not be completely flooded and there may be some tiny islands just above sea level, but actually managing to click on their small areas in the found new city interface can be a real challenge. The small size of the island does not limit the city size, as the number of building spaces available are only determined by population. However, you can still add more water (particularly unintentionally Hab Dome) which may quickly drown what little land is left. The Overflow event may add water to the planet. Falling Star adds 3000 pressure (which is more than 600 so it may cause the aforementioned deluge), or oxygen and water, depending on your choice. Habitability for plants and microbes to grow on a planet's surface requires a varying range of sea level, depending upon the planet's total surface area and variations in elevation. Habitability for animals and humans outside of a Hab building is usually a narrower band within the plant/microbe range. You cannot build cities or outposts underwater (or on water for that matter). You can build cities on ice sheets, as long as the ground beneath the ice is above the liquid water sea level. Cities or outposts are not affected even if they were original built on dry land and later covered by ice sheets; only the liquid water sea level beneath is capable of flooding and destroying them when it becomes too high. Remember ice tends to form on higher elevation (as well as tending towards the poles); if your world is largely covered in ice but some areas are dry land, it may be tempting but it may actually be a bad idea to build there, since those would tend to be some of the lowest lying areas that would be flooded when the ice melts. Instead, stick to the elevation map and build on the highest points. Your cities on those ice-covered high areas would be fine even when the ice melts out under them. Note that the in game stats screen is incapable of displaying both ice and vapor. It can only display ice+water, or water+vapor. When ice sublimes into vapor or vice versa because of <600 pressure, the screen would still display the rate of change, but would fail to show the total being gradually changed, until all ice/vapor has changed into the opposite state, then it would immediately register all of the water as being in that new state. Flooding Cities Rising sea levels on world have come dangerously close to City. Evacuations have begun, but if the sea level reaches the city, it will be destroyed! People will evacuate from that city before it gets destroyed, but they don't seem to go to another city on your world. If you go to the 'population' tab on your Stats Page, the cities that are evacuating will say 'EVACUATING' plus a number of people that's leaving the city per minute (it is possible for the population to continue to grow if other increases are higher than this decrease), but none of the other cities gets a population boost. City Drowned City has been submerged beneath the rising sea levels of World! Evacuations were underway, but number people were unable to escape in time, and were killed. The city has been completely destroyed. There will be nothing left of your city. It simply disappears off of your list of cities. Native Villages If you have a Native Civilization on your world, you will have to be extra careful with your water levels, since native villages can drown, but if they threaten to, you will not receive a warning notification like you do for cities. When looking at a village's page, you are also not able to see how far above sea level the village is, so a flooding notification can really seem to come out of nowhere. Village Drowned The native village of village has been submerged beneath the rising sea levels of World! Evacuations were underway, but number natives were unable to escape in time, and were killed. The village has been completely destroyed. Outposts and Mines Outposts and mines can flood just like cities and villages. If an outpost is flooded, all of its mines are destroyed with it. If only one mine of an outpost has been flooded, but the outpost itself has not, then only the mine will be destroyed. Governors The governors Tomoya Mukai, Sofia Ishtar Batma and Vivica Matiba-Cavalcanti have effects that can help your facilities reduce your world's water levels faster. The governors Kainoa Akna Kalani, Makuahanai "Duke" Kalama and Buzz Sullivan have effects that can help your facilities increase your world's water levels faster. Buildings Buildings that get rid of water also works on ice or vapor. Any building that adds water would see the water turn into whatever the planet's conditions make it into. Trivia *The 600 pascal pressure requirement is not arbitrary but a real-life limitation due to physics. Below that point (611.657 pascal to be exact), liquid water cannot exist as heating ordinary ice causes it to directly sublime into vapor, and vice versa. See this section on the properties of water on Wikipedia for more information. Category:Terraforming Category:Water